The Social Competence of Children Following Burn Injury: A Study of Resilience

That the literature focuses primarily on the psychosocial adjustment of burned children who are doing poorly, without paying as much attention to those who are doing well, highlighted the need for a study that would identify the factors that inoculate the child or have a health-enhancing effect, rendering the child more resilient to the stress of burn injury. Chart abstractions for sociodemographic and clinical data were completed on 337 children admitted to a regional burn unit during a 12-year period. Of these, abstractions for 145 were randomly selected and classified according to severity of burn-major or minor. Mothers of the children were given the Achenbach Behavioral Profile, PAIS, and Family Environment Scale. Factors that distinguished the more socially competent from the less socially competent children were (1) families with greater interest in political, intellectual, and cultural activities; (2) families with greater participation in social/recreational activities; (3) families of higher socioeconomic status; (4) families with larger number of members of household; (5) mothers who viewed their child's adjustment more positively; (6) longer time since burn; and (7) more severe burn. The study refutes the commonly held belief that the less severe the burn the fewer the adjustment problems.